Tham khảo tài liệu 'grammar in use new part 25', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | Unit 79 Singular and plural Sometimes we use a plural noun for one thing that has two parts. For example trousers two legs also jeans tights shorts pants pyjamas top and bottom binoculars scissors These words are plural so they take a plural verb My trousers are too long not my trousers is You can also use a pair of these words Those are nice jeans. or That s a nice pair of jeans not a nice jeans I need some new glasses or 1 need a new pair of glasses. B Some nouns end in -ics but are not usually plural. For example athletics economics electronics gymnastics maths mathematics physics politics Gymnastics is my favourite sport not Gymnastics are News is not plural see Unit 70B What time is the news on television not are the news Some words ending in -s can be singular or plural. For example means a means of transport series a television series species a species of bird many means of transport two television series 200 species of bird Some singular nouns are often used with a plural verb. For example audience committee company family firm government staff team These nouns are all groups of people. We often think of them as a number of people they not as one thing it . So we often use a plural verb The government they want to increase taxes. The staff at the school they are not happy with their new working conditions. In the same way we often use a plural verb after the name of a sports team or a company Italy are playing Brazil next week in a football match . Shell have increased the price of petrol. A singular verb The government wants . Shell has . etc. is also possible. We use a plural verb with police The police are investigating the murder but haven t arrested anyone yet. not The police is . hasn t Note that we say a police officer a policeman a policewoman not a police . D We do not often use the plural of person persons . We normally use people a plural word He s a nice person but They are nice people not nice persons Many people don t have enough to eat. not .
